Ups and Downs
by Anti-Social-Turtle
Summary: Chapter 3 up! Bosco and Faith get in a situation only months after getting back together, and it strains both their emotions to the brink.
1. Empty Puzzle

Disclaimer: Nope not my show

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"Faith, Faith it's dark," he spoke slower each time he opened his mouth and drew breath. As the lights began to dim, as the minutes passed, hours, as more blood leaked in a dripping slop from his thigh, his speech became slurred and the throbbing under his skin decreased that much more. She was just glad to hear him talking at all.

"I know Bosco, how's your leg?" she tried to change the subject.

His pause worried her but he opened his mouth, and drew breath like the last time, "Numb."

There was silence again. Faith heard the pain in his voice diminish and her hope that he was getting better was unfounded. The bullet wouldn't miraculously jump from his leg, and the blood that had soaked through his pant leg and his coat that was serving as a tourniquet wouldn't flow back into his deprived veins.

"Think they'll come back here?" Bosco asked plainly. All emotion in his voice had left at this point. She wanted to shove it all back in him, tell him to fight, tell him that they wouldn't come back, that Ty and Sully and Sasha and maybe even Cruz would come charging in with the 'bucket boys' to get them out of there; but she couldn't look him in the face and lie. He always knew when she was lying.

"I hope not," she spoke as slowly as he did, didn't want to get him worried. 

It had been over three hours since the elevator had stopped, trapping them inside. When it had originally happened, she'd figured they'd call service and have them out of there in no time flat. But who knew elevator doors weren't bullet proof?

The onslaught of bullets preceded the path of 55-David as they chased after the armed marauders. They'd followed them down a seemingly empty hallway and when they'd approached the open elevator, they were pushed in. 

Now they sat in the metal contraption, the light seemed to seep out from under them; one of the bullets probably screwed with the wiring is what she'd told him. Calmed his nerves.

"Y-You got a light?"

His question startled her and even more so as he stuttered.  
  


"What?"

"Your flashlight?" he waited too long and found himself gasping a breath in after his seemingly redundant question.

"Oh, yeah Bos, don't worry," she finished and turned her head to look at him. His eyes drooped and a dripping sound surrounded his ears, lulling him into slumber. 

Faith knew that it was trite, but it was all she could think of to say, "Bos, Bosco wake up, don't fall asleep on me, OK?"

"Sure, just for you," he whispered under still closed eyes. He felt Faith wrap her hand around his giving it and unflinching squeeze. 

He became alarmed at the sensation of dried blood against skin. He weakly pulled his hand away as his eyes bolted open. Only then did he become aware of the blood around his lower body. The before calming dripping he'd felt, was now scaring him into an even more ghastly color as he saw it was indeed his blood falling from his leg.

"Faith?"

"Yeah Bos?"

"This isn't going to end well," his speech slowed again and he leaned his head back against the wall. The blood loss and heat was dizzying, and the spots forming in front of his eyes didn't help much either.

"Shut up Bosco," she replied quietly, new tears forming in her eyes. She wouldn't let herself cry for him, not in front of him.

His eyes never left their original, downcast spot. They lingered there until he heard the distant sound of Faiths sniffle.

"Sorry," he said, struggling for enough energy to take Faiths hand back in his, "I'm sorry."

"We're going to get you out of here, and you're going to be fine, and we're going to put this all behind us, OK?" She said more as a statement for herself, than a question towards him.  
  


"Pr-Promise?" His voice was now reduced to that of a young child. The level of pleading in his voice hadn't changed though, and she knew why; he was dying and he knew it.

She nodded, then realizing it pointless in the dark, and brought the back of his hand up to her lips. Her light kiss lingered as she finally let the tears roll down her cheek, "I promise."

Bosco sighed as he felt her closeness leave as she pulled away. 

"C-Can we change the subject?" He found himself pausing for air again, and a knot began to form in his stomach. He just wanted the assurance that she would be OK, if. . .well, when the inevitable happened. "How about them Mets?" he said with a quick and painful laugh.

"I don't know, what about them Bosco?" she laughed as well. As her awkward laugh died down she noticed his reply never came, "Bosco?" she said apprehensively. Again no reply came but the struggled wheeze omitted from Bosco's mouth as he struggled to pull in air.

"F-Fai-Faith," he stuttered, barely audible over his desperate wheezes, "h-hurts."

As soon as her first question came unanswered she had turned her whole body around to look him in the eye. His eyes were merely slit open now, seeing not as important as breathing for his body.

She took his head in both her hands and lifted him up. Tried to get him to look at her, to look in her eyes and see that she was ready to take away his pain if she could. But she couldn't open her mouth to speak. The site before her only brought more tears to her eyes, and as Bosco's breath shortened and slowed, she placed her forehead on his.

"I-I'm OK," he breathed listlessly. 

"No, you're not, none of this is OK," she sighed and resumed her vigil at his side. . . his hand still intertwined with hers.

*~*^*~*

It'd been more then five hours by now, Faith decided as she strained to look at her watch in the dark. All amounts of light has left the confinement at this point, and Bosco raspy breath was the only way so knew he was still breathing at all.

She hadn't let go of his hand either. She had been holding it the whole time, and he didn't figure out that while comforting him, she was also checking his pulse. He would never let her do it willingly, so what he didn't know, didn't hurt him.

She was pretty sure he'd been in and out of consciousness for the past hour, and when he was awake, he wasn't very lucid.

She leaned her head against the wall, feeling very alone, she wondered how alone she would feel if he didn't survive. She let her mind wander to a day a couple of months ago. She had been back on the job only a week and she and Bosco had been called in on a murder case in their jurisdiction. . .

*

"Bosco! Hey, wait up!" she'd yelled as he walked with Sasha to the RMP. They had talked briefly since her return from the desk. A 'hello' here a 'how you doing?' there, but it wasn't enough to constitute a conversation.

Bosco turned around, giving Sasha his I-need-to-talk-to-someone-so-leave-me-alone-look, and she went to start the car.

"Hey," he nodded briefly before his vision shifted to the ground.

"Look," she started, "I think we need to talk, I owe you that much."

"I think we do too, and yeah. . . you also owe me a month of working with Sasha," he smirked, "she's driving me insane, let me tell you."

"She was sweet to me," she returned the smile, "maybe she just doesn't mesh with your winning personality."

"Yeah, that must be it," he sighed and looked up from the ground, putting his hands into his coat pocket, forcefully.

There was an uncomfortable silence and Faith opened her mouth to speak, "I'm sorry Bos," Bosco looked at her in anticipation before she continued, "I shouldn't have let my marriage to Fred and all his issues get in the way of our partnership."

"Yeah, actually you should've," he took a few steps closer to her and looked her in the face once more before he whispered, "I got you shot Faith, you have no reason to forgive me."

She smirked a little to hide her need to cry, "OK, so I don't forgive you for getting me shot, but there's no forgiveness needed for me being your partner," she sighed trying to find the right words.

"I've missed you too Faith," he interjected.

Faith felt the relief wash over her body as he found the words for her, he always understood her.

"So, I'll check the roster, make sure Yokas and Boscorelli are ridin' in 55-David next week?" he asked hopefully.

"Yup," she sighed and turned to walk away, not before whispering to herself, "together again."

But he'd heard her. Always heard her loud and clear. And it was a start.

*

. . .She was harshly pulled from her daydream by an abrupt rehash of gunfire. This time it was farther away, above them even. 

Faith felt herself squeezing Bosco's hand even tighter in preparation of what might come. She heard the shots move further down the building where they finally came to a stop.

"Bosco, Bos you hear that?" she asked his still form. She hadn't noticed, but he'd given in a few minutes ago. He'd succumbed to the pain, blood loss, heat, stress, it was too much for his weakened body.

"We're going to get out of here Bos. . .I promise," she whispered in his ear before leaning her head back in exhaustion, praying he heard her. . .

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TBC! I have the next chapter already mostly done. Read and review and I'll get it up faster.


	2. Fitting Together

Disclaimer: STILL not my show. What a shocker huh?

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"Faith, Faith, open your eyes," the voice was distant but it registered in her mind, familiar.

"Bosco?" she muttered in her fitful rest.

The owner of the voice exchanged looks with another occupant and looked back down at her, "Uh, no, it's Doc, we're taking you to Mercy," he explained finally.

"Bosco, is he OK? He was shot . . ." she trailed off as the memories came to her. She'd slowly been losing her own grip on reality in that elevator. She didn't remember when exactly when she'd let herself slip; maybe an hour after Bosco had. . .he had. . . "Oh no, he's, he was. . ." she couldn't finish the sentence as her fear overwhelmed her body.

Again Doc looked over to the other occupant, who she had yet to identify, "He's still alive," he tried to make it sound convincing, hopeful.

The familiar sensation of relief inundated her body and she sighed. He made it this long. He would be ok. He had to be. 

She couldn't speak the words she needed to know though; they wouldn't come to her. She scanned her surroundings; she was in the back of a bus, sitting in the gurney. Doc was to her left, and that new chick Levine was driving.

"What happened?" she finally spoke. The last thing she remembered was the fresh sound of gunfire, she didn't have any recollection of what had happened to bring about their rescue.

"Well," Doc sighed, "from what I gather, Sully and Ty had gone after the gang, or what have you, as soon as they lost radio contact with you guys."

She nodded in understanding and waited for him to continue, "they got in a shoot out, no one was hurt besides, well, them," he sighed, "Sully said he couldn't get a lot out of them but they told us where they'd seen you last. . .we were lucky we found you guys when we did."

"How bad off is he?" she asked finally, thought she felt she knew the answer. Again the silence, she had really become to hate the sound of well, lack of sound. Doc pretended to review her chart, clearly avoiding the question, "Doc! How bad is he?!"

"Bad Faith, it was pretty bad," he looked down at the chart and closed it as they came to a stop outside Mercy.

*~*^*~*

Pretty bad. Pretty bad, that was what she was left with. Pretty bad, critical condition, no matter how you said it, it all meant the same thing. It meant he might die, meant she might lose her partner. . . again.

She had been so overwhelmed with joy when they got back together. I mean there was no questioning, no talk of the day nearly a year ago now, at least not since they got back together.

In situations like that, she'd known him to get emotionally corrupt, close the world out, but she had lucked out this time. They needed each other.

Faith had been discharged, just pure exhaustion, after a battery of tests it was just pure exhaustion. But she didn't have the heart to leave. She didn't leave him in the elevator; she wouldn't leave him now.

As much as Bosco hated being in the hospital, she hated waiting. It was always a waiting game. You sit, you aimlessly skim through a magazine, continuously looking at the clock; it was all a game.

It had been two and a half hours since they were found, and hour since they took him to surgery, forty-five minutes since his mother had showed up, twenty minutes since she'd kicked Fred out of the hospital, and thirty seconds since she had looked at the clock.

"Ga'damnit, what's taking to long?" she cursed to herself. Sully and Ty were sitting across the waiting room and both of their heads whipped in her direction in response to her outburst.

"Faith you need to sit down, and calm down," Sully spoke calmly. 

So she sat.

*~*^*~*

Sleep was the last thing on her mind, but she found herself lulled to rest in an uncomfortable chair near Bosco's bed.

She didn't know how long she'd been there, nor have any recollection of falling asleep to begin with, but Bosco's surprisingly soft touch woke her instantly.

"Bosco?" she said, gaining some lucidity as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She sat up in her chair and leaned over, taking his hand from where it lay gently on hers.

"Hey," he spoke unbridled. He sucked in a deep, but only slightly shaky breath, utilizing the tubes that lay gently under his nose, "You don't look so hot."

"Oh, well you should look in the mirror," she breathed, relief all over her features. He squeezed her hand again, and looked up at her.

"Now, I guess, I owe you something," he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, how do you figure?" she smirked sadly.

"Well you kept your promise," he looked at her, rubbing her fingers gently with his thumb, "we got out."

"Good point, so how do you owe me?"

"Pick," he said curtly, sucking in another breath, "anything."

"Oh, Bosco, you never say 'anything' to a woman," she laughed enjoying their closeness, "just promise you'll stay with me OK?"

"With you where?" he questioned, his sprightly smile returning to his face.

"Just, you know, my partner," she ventured, putting the suggestion out on the table. The truth was, she wasn't complete without him as her partner. Riding with him everyday had become something she'd taken for granted. After the shooting, she promised herself that she'd stay away from him. Stay away from the trouble he brought her, but really, she was in more trouble without him.

"Not goin' anywhere," his smile turned down as he pushed himself up to look in her eyes, "but it looks like you'll be ridin' with Sasha for a while."

"Promised you I would, didn't I?" she squeezed his hand back.

"Wow, you're two for two," he inhaled deeply again before continuing, " 'bout time I own up on some of mine, huh?"

"Oh, and what have you ever promised me?" she asked wittingly. At sometimes he'd promised her the world, but he was rarely sincere. He hated making promises. The only promise he had ever made was to his mother; that he would out live her.

"I promised I would protect you," he removed his hand from her, planting it next to his hips and hoisting him into an upright position, "the day we became partners."

Faith turned her head, looking out the small window in his door. She felt the white hot tears coming to her eyes, and again she felt too out of place to cry, "Don't go all mushy on me Bos, it doesn't suit you."

"Must be all the drugs they got me on," his eyes were trained on Faith and when she turned back to face him, she could stop the tears.

"You wish you could use that as an excuse more often."

Then, a there was a knock at the door, and a figured from behind it beckoned her out.

*~*^*~*

"What's goin' on boss?" she asked, stepping out of the room and facing Lieutenant Swersky.

"I gotta talk with you 'bout today's incident," he spoke, rocking back and forth slightly with his hands planted firmly in his pant pockets.

"What's up, you get any leads on who did this?" she looked at him hopefully. He was hiding something and it was making her uncomfortable. 

He motioned for her to sit down next to him, as he did, in a small row of plastic chairs.

"What aren't you telling me, and why couldn't we talk in front of Bosco? I mean, he should know. . ." she rambled. Swersky put his hand gently oh her leg to silence her.

"It was Gary Barns" he spoke softly and removed his hand, "we finally got him behind bars, but we also got him talking."

"And. . .?" she moved to the edge of her chair, waiting for the lieutenant to continue.

"And," he gulped, "he's been working with Cruz."

What!? Faith thought to herself. Cruz was in cahoots with Gary Barns a.k.a. Animal, The same Animal who inadvertently killed her sister! Oh this was going to get messy.

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TBC! Ok so I can't leave you there right? So, probably only one more chapter. . .but I didn't kill him yet. ;) 


	3. A Hug Around the Neck

Disclaimer: not mine, and not going to be, unless one of these days someone wants to give me a crap load of money to buy it.

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"So did you bring her in?" Faiths face was etched with anger. She ground her left foot into the floor and waited for Swersky to answer her even unasked questions.

"She's in the wind. . ." 

Faith cut him off with an outburst, "Oh, of COURSE she's in the wind, I mean what would you except from that rotten little bitch?" she couldn't believe she finished that sentence out loud; in front of her Lieutenant no less.

"I'll take into consideration the severity of the situation, and ignore that," he snapped, running his hand through his graying hair.

"Sorry Lieu," she stepped back a little and turned to go back to Bosco.

"Faith," he stepped in front of her, blocking the path to Bosco's door, "we have reason to believe that Animal and his boys were carrying out hits for Cruz. . .either of you could still be a target."

Faith was surprised. She hadn't actually thought that Cruz had been the one giving the orders, she hadn't actually thought about her involvement in the shooting at all.

"Targets? Of Sergeant Cruz?" She spoke in a shell-shocked manor. She subconsciously looked over her should, gazing into Bosco's room. He lay, in a restless sleep, the thought of Cruz wanting to hurt him surprised even Faith.

"We have little to go by, but Animals word, Bosco in the hospital, Cruz MIA, it all stand pretty good in my court," he sighed and followed Faiths gaze through the glass window, "how's he doing?"

Faith let out a sigh, "He's Bosco."

"Ok, keep me posted," he slid out of view and left Faith with her partner.

*~*^*~*

Bosco's eyes automatically flinched as the light from the hallway entered his room. The door opened and Faith flounced in as if she had not a care in the world.

"Who was that?" his voice was getting weaker from exhaustion and lack of use.

"Uh, just Swersky check'n in on us," she smiled a fake smile into the dark room. Bosco found himself nodding, despite his instinctive receptors for a lie. A lie by omission was no different.

"D'he have any leads?" he coughed, adjusting his position in the gurney.

"No, and you need to rest, your mom's going to want to see you eventually," she winked and brushed her hand gently on his arm.

"Stop lying to me Faith," he forced out.

She cast her eyes down and an imaginary spot on the floor, "nothing you need to worry about now, Ok?"

"If I felt better, I'd be mad, "he sucked in a breath and continued, "but I don't, so you lucked out."

"Ok," she smiled sadly, "feel up to seeing your mom?"

"Oh man, she's going to have it in for me," he kidded and slowly nodded his head.

Faith took a moment and leaned over his bed, brushing his short hair back, "Yeah, she isn't the happiest woman in the world, she cares about you."

"Don't I know it," he seemed to brace himself against the bed and Faith withdrew her gentle touch.

She took a step towards the door, then another, and another, until she was out in the hall. She scanned the chairs in the waiting room briefly before approaching the front desk.

"Mary, you see where Rose went?" She tapped the desk anxiously.

"Uh," she looked around, "I think she went to the cafeteria," she smiled warmly.

Faith returned the smile and took off toward the elevator. She reached out and pushed the "up" button. The doors opened and she looked hesitantly back at Bosco's door. A frown crept across her face and she pivoted on her heals, opting for a trip on the stairs.

*~*^*~*

The halls of the hospital had been silent since Faith had watched Rose enter her son's room. Faith choose a seat near the lounge to give them space and had aloud her eyes to slide closed for a rest.

It couldn't have been longer then a ten-minute rest before a loud outburst rang out from down the hall.

"Help! Someone help! Faith!" Came Rose's pleading cries. Her head and upper torso were protruding from Bosco's doorway and she had a clearly panic stricken look across her face.

Faith sprung for her chair in a complete daze. She pushed in the door, past Rose, and into the darkened room. The blaring alarms and the thrashing form of her partner were secondary causes to her next action. The first thing that hit her was the dark figure of a man, next to Bosco's bed, with his hands tightly brought around Bosco's neck.

"Police freeze!" Faiths voice echoed in the room and she raised her now unholstered gun. The man didn't move from his position and his grip on Bosco just became stronger.

The sounds swirled around Faith, the machines, Roses sobbing, the pitter-patter of hurried feet on the linoleum, an in an instant, the darkened figure rose his gun and all that could be heard was a single shot.

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TBC oh I'm so cruel huh?


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